By: Eli Yissar, Ulpanat Orot in Toronto, High School Intern
Joining the Hasbara High School Internship this year has been one of the smartest decisions that I have made in my life. This seems crazy to think about since this program only started a few months ago but in that short time I have learned so much about properly advocating for Israel.
Ever since I can remember, my love and support towards Israel has been clear. Being raised by Israeli parents and visiting my extended family living in Israel every few years had always made it obvious to me that I support everything that Israel stood for without giving it much of a second thought. That said, I was also always quick to defend Israel if I ever heard a negative statement so when I heard about this internship it was clear to me that I would join.
To complete the Hasbara High School Internship I had to finish a few activities. Things like writing an article to be published at my high school newspaper, create and seven day social media campaign, and organize an event at school- all having to do with Israel advocacy.
Once I started these activities, I realized that I had to do research about Israel, something that I had never done before. And that is when I understood that as much as I loved and supported Israel, I didn’t really know as much about it as I thought. The first activity I completed was my social media campaign, deciding to post about an Israeli hero every day. Even though I knew about most of the people I had posted about I learned so much about the specific things that they did, like Isser Harel, the man that oversaw the capture and transportation of Holocaust organizer, Adolf Eichmann to Israel.
The next activity I worked on was my newspaper article and after all the people that I had learned about that supported Israel I decided to write about the land itself. So my article was all about different landscapes in Israel, like The Hula Valley, one of the world’s largest bird watching sites.
The latest and honestly my favourite activity was the school event that I arranged with another one of my friends who had also joined the Hasbara High School Internship program. The event was focused on both positive and negative social media posts that have to do with Israel. The goal was to have students participate by using different stickers, each one representing a different feeling towards that specific post and stick directly onto the paper so that by the end of the event we could discuss specific things. The reason that I enjoyed this activity so much was because I was able to talk with a lot of the students about how they feel when they see posts like these on social media. Most said that they feel angry when they see untrue and anti-zionist posts but they don’t do much about it because they are afraid of getting hate or attacked. This led to a full discussion with everyone that came to the event about what the best thing is to do in a situation like that. This event allowed for a group of students to talk and learn about the best ways to support Israeli on social media which in today’s day in age is truly one of the best tools to do so.
There are so many things to love about Israel, and in the short time that I have been a part of the Hasbara High School Internship program I have learned so much in the research that I have begun to do and the activities that I am completing. I can not wait to continue learning ways to support and Stand up for Israel.
